IPv6 basics; connecting via link-local

In today’s story we are attached to a local area network (LAN) with a bunch of IPv6-enabled hosts. We do not necessarily need to have a valid IPv6 router present, since we are just fooling around in this local segment, pinging each other and testing connections.

IPv6 is a protocol meant serve a worldwide network and it’s numerous hosts. There are however addresses called link-local in each IPv6-enabled host. This link-local address is generated automatically by your computer’s operating system and it is valid for connectivity between hosts that can see each other in L2, even in absence of IPv6 routers. These addresses are also used by IPv6’s Neighbor Discovery Protocol.

Does my host have IPv6?

If your operating system is from this millenia, it should have IPv6 available. But let’s check.